Mandy McLellan

What animals do you work with?

I have worked with Ungulates, Carnivores, with the Wildlife clinic and VQC, Primates and Backyard to Bush

How long have you been working as a zookeeper?

I have been working as a zookeeper at Taronga Zoo for 12 years.

How did you get into zookeeping as a profession?

I actually stumbled across zookeeping through a series of twists and turns in my tertiary studies. I was doing a psychology major and just for fun I decided as part of my degree to do a unit in "Animal Behaviour". I loved it! I didn't look back and decided that animals were WAY more fascinating than humans. One of the assignments for this unit was to come into the zoo and do a behavioural study on a group of animals. I chose the Spider Monkeys. Little did I know then that I would end up, years later, becoming a senior primate keeper.

So after I finished my degree, and did some travelling, I started as a volunteer keeper and studied the Zookeeping Certificate and the rest is history.

What do you love most about your job?

I really love the wide range of things you get to do as a zookeeper. Although the day to day tasks can be quite routine, working with animals really keeps you on your toes. Things change all the time. There are constant surprises with new animals being born or coming into the zoo to join breeding programmes and animals moving out to other zoos to join their programmes. There are also changes in relationships between animals. Particularly with primates, who are generally very social animals, there is always something going on! In 12 years I have not had a single day where I have been bored or fed up. That is pretty cool, I think.

I feel really lucky to get to work with the amazing animals here at Taronga Zoo and also the people.  I feel really fortunate to be surrounded by such fantastic, dedicated people everyday. It's a wonderful job.

What has been the wildest moment of your career so far?

I've had lots of great experiences. I have hand-raised lion cubs, trained orang-utans, worked overseas in Vietnam with endangered primates, worked in a zoo in Japan with gorillas and most recently I am hand-raising a Francois Langur infant.